Alice Through Blood-stained Glass

For Hardcore Readers Only

I have to start by saying that Alice is, hands down, my favorite literary character, so I expect a lot when an author takes her story and transforms it. I also love Zombie-fic, but I expect more than random brain eating.

So when I started reading this, I worried. I've read other Alice/Zombie mashups. So far, only one has been successful. The others became quickly tedious or ridiculous.

Alice Through Bloodstained Glass left the others in its dust.

This is truly hardcore and not for the faint of heart. And by hardcore, I mean everything about it. It's got sex, drugs, language, over-the-top violence, and gory zombie goodness. At times, you need to suspend that sense of disbelief, but it's not hard to do as you ride through this particular zombie apocalypse.

The Alice references are more than tangential. This isn't essence of Alice. This is Alice if she were a stone-cold killer and slightly sociopathic. Instead of a vague plotline, the author has the guts to actually incorporate dialogue from Alice in Wonderland - and it works. It's surreal, violent, and threatening - with the trippiness that always lurked under the surface of the original.

Five stars. I am impressed.